My Genealogy Hound

REV. CHARLES M. SHELDON.
Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, pastor of the Central Congregational Church of Topeka, is a man whose name and fame probably extends around the world and one whose manly, consistent Christian character has won for him the unbounded esteem and admiration of his fellow-citizens. Rev. Mr. Sheldon was born in New York, February 26, 1857, and is one of a family of six children born to Rev. Stewart and Sarah (Ward) Sheldon.

The venerable father of our subject resides with him in Topeka. For many years Rev. Stewart Sheldon was a minister of the Gospel in New York, but some years since gave up his last charge and came to this city.

Charles M. Sheldon was reared in New York through his early boyhood and passed the remainder of that impressionable period in South Dakota. His education was of a very ample character, pursued is Eastern institutions of learning. In 1879 he was graduated from Andover Academy, in Massachusetts, and then entered Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island, which has been the alma mater of so many illustrious men. He was graduated from Brown in 1883 and three years later was graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary.

Rev. Mr. Sheldon’s first charge was at Waterbury, Vermont, where he served from 1886 to 1888. In January, 1889, he accepted the call to his present charge, the Central Congregational Church of Topeka. Here his labors have been continued ever since. The great love and high esteem which he has inspired in his congregation of 500 members, tell of fidelity to duty, consistent Christian living and the close following of the Master he aims to serve. When Rev. Mr. Sheldon took charge, he found many difficulties in his path, one of these being the immediate need for a new place of worship. The completed church edifice, which tourists come far to see, on account of the reputation of its noted pastor, is a handsome, substantial structure to which an addition has recently been made, through the generous gift of $4,500 by the widow of the late T. E. Bowman, and is known as the Bowman Memorial Annex. A sketch of Mr. Bowman will be found elsewhere in this volume.

In 1891 Rev. Mr. Sheldon was married to Mary Merriam, who is a daughter of Everett B. Merriam. They have one son,—Merriam W. Their pleasant home is located at No. 1515 West 15th street. To speak extensively of either Rev. Mr. Sheldon’s spiritual work or of his many successes in authorship, would be almost superfluous, in a work prepared for circulation in a locality where his name is almost a household word. He is the author of a number of very popular books, among these being: “His Brother’s Keeper,” “In His Steps,” “Malcolm Kirk,” “Edward Blake” and “Born to Serve.”

Rev. Mr. Sheldon’s influence on public men and measures has been great. He is constantly concerned with great philanthropic ideas and is gratified many times to find them adopted by those who have the financial resources to carry them out. He is a man who has spent the best of his energies, the gifts of his intellect and the deepest resources of his nature in aid of his fellow-men. He does not convert the whole world to his way of thinking, but abundant success testifies to the sympathy which he has kindled and which will perpetuate the work as well as the name of one of the most retiring and unostentatious public men of the century.